April Meetup Recap

We had quite the meetup tonight at the Farmer’s Gastropub. If you weren’t able to make it, we missed you! Here’s a recap of our night:

Attendees

• Harry
• Brian
• Pamela
• Desdinova
• Linden
• Sarah
• CK
• Brandon

Topics of Discussion (in no particular order)

• We rescheduled the Blogaronis for Monday, May 9, at the Gastropub. Rather than formally nominating and voting as we have in years past, we are switching our annual awards up a bit. Think Dundie style. Essentially, we’re asking everyone to RSVP for the event. Those who RSVP will be assigned another attending blogger to create an award category for and provide some sort of trophy or prize. We’ll post the details for RSVPing in another post.
• We talked a bit about monetizing our blogs and whether anyone has had any success making money from their blogs. The consensus is that no one is living off the money their blogs bring in, but we tossed out several resources for those of us wanting to lose our day jobs.
  • TentBlogger.com – A blog about making a living from blogging and how to transition into full-time, professional blogging
  • Johnson & Johnson video blogging – Pamela mentioned that JNJhealth is looking for video bloggers and paying $100 for video (Pamela, if you have the link to how to submit a video blog, can you add it to this post’s comments?)
  • BlogDash.com – a website that connects bloggers (for free) to agencies and businesses for press coverage, partnerships, writing opportunities, advertising, or anything else.
  • Kickstarter.com – a website for funding creative projects
• If you’re wanting to get into the world of video blogging and want to use your iPhone 4, CK recommended the Glif, a handy-dandy tripod / stand / handle for doing a whole lot of stuff with your phone — including making a video or two.
• Pamela and Brian told us about their experience at SXSW last month. Brian has a First-Timer’s Survival Guide on his blog. Pamela had all kinds of tips for attending on a budget; we’re trying to coax a blog series out of her for the inside scoop. SXSW 2012 is next March 9-18. Anyone wanna go?

Those are the highlights. There were some colorful lowlights that we shall not mention; you’ll have to come to the Blogaronis next month to get the full Springfield Bloggers Association experience!!